Thursday, August 12, 2010

As I was on the plane back from Portland to Sacramento, my brain was racing around with thoughts and ideas, my pen busy scribbling them all down. What an exciting and inspiring time we all just had! The chance to meet and sketch with artists whose work I've followed and grown with these past few years, and to meet and learn from new artists I didn't know before, was unbelievable. I learned so much from Gerard, Gabi, Matthew, Frank, Tia, Lapin, Liz, Isabel, Simonetta, Jason, Shiho, Kumi, Suzanne, Don, all the Portland sketchers and so many others too numerous to name. My only regret is that I didn't get a chance to talk to absolutely everyone, because each person I met had an individual way of looking at the world and approach to pursuing their art that opened my already wide eyes up in a humbling way. If we didn't get a chance to meet or chat (or even if we did), feel free to get in touch for some urban sketching talk!

And Portland was a great city for this event - interesting to draw, not too big, and full of creative people. (And not too far for me to get to, either!) I think if I'd decided not to go, I would have really missed out. I tried some new things, and learned a great deal. I'm slowly adding blog posts about each stage of the Symposium at petescully.com so pop by for a more detailed story. I'm about halfway through.

I'd like to thank the tireless Gabi Campanario for being the driving force behind all of this, and for bringing the urban sketching world together. I think this event has given those who participated so much additional creative energy, maybe that we never even knew we had. I for one want to go out now and get everyone sketching, even those that never draw, maybe hand out pens and pieces of paper to passers-by, show them that they can look at their towns and their cities and record them on paper in their own personal way, be it grand vistas or tall buildings, or people eating at cafes, or fire hydrants, poking out of the ground. Draw! Sketch! Paint! Everything is interesting if you take an interest in it.

about the symposium

In late July of 2010, the city of Portland, Oregon (USA), became a canvas for drawing enthusiasts from around the world as Pacific Northwest College of Art (PNCA) and Urban Sketchers (USK) hosted the 1st International Urban Sketching Symposium. The three-day event attracted participants and presenters from diverse corners of the world. In addition to the U.S., other countries represented were Australia, Belgium, Canada, Mauritania, Italy, Japan, Singapore, the Dominican Republic and Spain. The program consisted of lectures, panels, exhibits and field sketching sessions led by a diverse team of international presenters with backgrounds in art education, architecture, illustration and journalism. This blog documents the experience since the Symposium was announced in March. A selection of photographs from the event can be found in this flickr collection. Sketches produced by participants during the event can also be seeing on the Symposium flickr group.

Other Portland resources

World Wide SketchCrawl Day

We'll be observing the 28th World Wide SketchCrawl on July 31st, the third day of the Symposium, in addition to the scheduled program. The global sketching marathons were started by San Francisco artist Enrico Casarosa in 2004. It's a day when people across the world get out to draw wherever they are. Visit the SketchCrawl Forum to arrange sketching meetups in Portland and elsewhere.